Hedge dispute

sea12

Hi Looking for some advise here. sorry for teh long post!



At the edge of my land a neighbours daughter and husband built their house, the hedge was about 20 ft high and they asked me would I cut it. It was always considered our hedge as there was a drain on their side of the hedge. So i agreed and cut it down to about 10ft high. No issue here, good to be neighbourly etc. However 3 years later my brother was applying for a site next to them on our own land. Again met them a few times walking the road etc and they said they would be no issue from them and they were also building a "small back kitchen". I never bothered checking the application and when they started to build, the extension was as big as the original house with two windows on the first floor overlooking the site that my broher intended building. We were disgusted but said nothing and said we would let the hedge up a few feet it would be allright.

However as the brother couldnt finance the build he didnt apply for plannning. However he fully intends to do so within the next few years.

I noticed the neighbour kept cutting the hedge at the new height. One day I called upto him and chatted away about a few things and told hime that we felt a bit overlooked and wanted to let the hedge up a few feet from the extension back so we wernt overlooked. We would maintain the existing height the wholeway from the road to the front of his house so as to keep it neat and allow light in. He seemed a bit put out but didnt say anything against it. It was a cordial discussion I left on good terms.

However met him two weeks later and he turned his head sideways when I waved. His father in law stuck into my father one day over it and to be honest we havnt spoke since then. I cut the hedge the way I wanted last year and again about a month ago. The windows were nearly less noticeable and you didnt feel as exposed everytime you went into the field to do anything, Anyway came home on Saturday to see he had got a hedge cutter in and cut the wholelot down to the level i cut it to a few years ago. Never asked or discussed, Just did it. Feel it was extremelly unfair and provocative.

I would not be petty and would be the first person to help any of the neighbours out as I have done with calving, or top their big backgardens etc when they got overgrown. I would get on with all my other neighbours no problem at all.

What would you do in this situation?

BeeDI

Is give the hedge a good dose of fertilizer.:p

s14driftking

slurry as much as possible the stinkest one u can get your hands on perferable pig slurry as it smells worst.
ow and make sure the wind is blowing at there house and the last of the gases get blew at the back of there house when emptying:D

polod

A situation Id hate to be in, Because you have to keep in with your neighbours and that, If you act the c**t with them, they could mess up any chance of your brother building and that was a very cheeky act done to you, I can only imagine how p****d off you are, but maybe you were best let it go till your brother gets his house built, then Slurry and fertiliser on the hedge and show them who owns the hedge then ?

cjpm

Don't do a single thing until you talk with a good solicitor.

Write everything that happened down and take a good few photos too.

sea12

cjpm wrote: »

Don't do a single thing until you talk with a good solicitor.

Write everything that happened down and take a good few photos too.

Yes this is what i think i will do. The only thing that is, they say they only winner in a legal dispute is the solicitors. But still i dont think I can just take it lying down either,

No point on fertilsing the hedge as he will keep cutting it.

s14driftking

leave a few hidden bars in the hedge that will cause machine damage hefty bill might stop him cutting in future

dar31

check what planning your neighbor has for the extension, can be got online from local co. co.
check your folio maps fro your field boundy.
OS maps should give you an idea as to the side of the ditch the boundry is on, some thing do do with the abb. CF & FF on the map as to which side.
not sure might be CF centre fence FF face of fence??????????
dont fall out as it could cause problems down the line.
if the hedge is a common boundry, tell him he is more than welcome to trim the top of his half of the hedge

Red Sheds

Cut the hedge down completely and in its place put the messiest ramshacle of a fence you can muster up, pallets, baler twine, crooked posts, rust bits of wire, old circular feeders etc. Thats your first problem solved, the neighbour cant cut it down any more. Then if neighbours want their place to look any way respectable, they will have to plant their own hedge, you can plant back your again then, I know it will take a couple of years to grow up, but what the hell, you will have a smile on your face.

Its a hard predicament alright, best of luck and hope you have a good outcome.

exaisle

Whose land is the hedge on?

If its on yours the neighbours can only cut the part of it that is over their property. They cant cut the part of it that's over yours.
This is just my tuppence worth...

If it's on theirs they can do what they like with it. If that's the case, I'd plant a hedge on your side. If its beside their hedge it will grow all the faster....because of the shelter.

Forget about ramshackle fences and pigslurry...that's impractical will do nobody any good.

If the hedge is on your land, tell them firmly that they cannot cut it and if necessary you will take out an injunction to prevent them doing so. They can't cause your brother any grief with a future planning application unless there are genuine reasons for objecting. Otherwise, their objection would be seen as frivolous.

Now....go see a solicitor and dont be asking the advice of us unqualified folk here! :-)

sea12

I supose thats the crunch of the issue alright. Father always said it was on our land and the drain on the farside of the hedge was their obviousely. Wich is why they asked us to cut the hedge in the beginning.
Now they will claim it is a a common boundry or their side. Think I will get the legal advise and take it from there.
Thanks for the posts.

bob charles

sea12 wrote: »

Wich is why they asked us to cut the hedge in the beginning.

Seems they know full well who owns the hedge. time to get this crap sorted out. If by what you have said your neighbor trespassed on your property to cut your hedge. A solicitors letter is the way forward for now, also check planning, aslong as its within the last 7 years you can cause him a bit of a problem. Log absolutely everything. The law is a place I prefer not to go but sometimes its the only answer.

keep going

put sheep wire or old barbed wire along the top of the hedge now and let it grow into it,contractors wont touch it

Milton09

There is an old saying - "Water divides on a boundary fence" That would make the hedge yours, however land registry maps and evidence of previous use/maintenance will be the real decider.

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

sea12 wrote: »

What would you do in this situation?

I think you field could do with lots of slurry every summer

J DEERE

Remove the ditch and rent the field as a halting site

sea12

Milton09 wrote: »

There is an old saying - "Water divides on a boundary fence" That would make the hedge yours, however land registry maps and evidence of previous use/maintenance will be the real decider.

That is the saying around here too.I have lots of other hedges bordering other farmers land and thats how we all look at it.

Thanks for theposts,glad to see its not just me being unreasonable.

exaisle

@OP - just wondering if there was any word as to who owns the hedge??

knotknowbody

sea12 wrote: »

That is the saying around here too.I have lots of other hedges bordering other farmers land and thats how we all look at it.

Thanks for theposts,glad to see its not just me being unreasonable.

That is the general belief in my area too, however a relative recently had a dispute with a neighbour which involved a hedge being removed without consent and the solicitors on both sides agreed that according to precedents set in previous cases the law is "whoever owns the ditch/drain also owns the hedge", the reasoning being that the ditch was dug to make the bank the hedge is planted on, so if you own the ditch you also own the soil in the bank and hence anything that grows from it.

I don't know how true this is and it goes against what i have believed for two decades but just be careful and be sure your correct before you do anything, talk to your solicitor.

P.S neither me nor my relative can remember the names of the cases where the above mentioned precedents were set.

sea12

No I just haven't had a chance to talk to a solicitor yet. Just really busy at work at the moment.

Yes I was discussing it with someone at the weekend and they thought it might be the owner of the drain who owns the hedge for the same reason as mentioned in the above post.

I will check it out in the next two weeks and come back to ye and let you know what advise I get.

Oldtree

what kind of hedge is it?

One option once you have established the exact boundry is to plant the dreaded leylandii as a new hedge with space to allow you to trim it to your choice of size on both sides on your land.

exaisle

Oldtree wrote: »

what kind of hedge is it?

One option once you have established the exact boundry is to plant the dreaded leylandii as a new hedge with space to allow you to trim it to your choice of size on both sides on your land.

Probably a bit impractical as it would take several years for even leylandii to reach the required height....although not nearly as impractical as some of the earlier suggestions in this thread. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned moving house....

sea12

exaisle wrote: »

Probably a bit impractical as it would take several years for even leylandii to reach the required height....although not nearly as impractical as some of the earlier suggestions in this thread. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned moving house....

Why would I want to move? its my farm so hardly going to move

MOSSAD

If the drain is on your land, then the soil which was removed and which now has a hedge on it is assumed to be yours. The theory is that a landowner would only throw the excavated soil onto his own property.
If that is your position, best thing is to plant a nice leylandii hedge on your side of the hedge, as another poster suggested. Out of sight out of mind. Good luck.
PS if the prevailing wind is from your property to theirs, try a few sycamores. Won't be too long before your neighbours will be cleaning sycamore seedlings by the thousand from his guttering, valleys, roof and lawn.

yog1

just a thought,
if you went to the expense of planting a hedge on your own land and it grew up to the height you wanted it to, what's to stop the neighbour from cutting it down to the height they want, they would have the upper hand as it's easier to cut a bit off than put a bit on, as from what i read it's not the hedge that's the dispute is over it's the height of it, the op wants it taller and the neighbour wants it kept low,
i know the reply is going to be "it's his/her land, they can plant a hedge on it if they want, if they cut it down it's criminal damage," this is true but it's one thing to know something and another thing to prove it, and they might not cut it, round up is easy bought and again you'd have to prove it,

all this cost's money and it would cost the op more than the neighbour, if it went down this road,

crackcrack30

Time may sort this out..... i.e they may get tierd of cutting the hedge or paying for it to be cut. It may seem like a big deal but try to keep yer mind(s) off it for a while, be the bigger person............or........

Send them a stiff sols letter, & send the hedge cutter one too......if you know him (cutter) let him know its just an exercise... but to stay away from your hedge/ditch and let other cutters know that there a dispute ongoing.

sea12

crackcrack30 wrote: »

Time may sort this out..... i.e they may get tierd of cutting the hedge or paying for it to be cut. It may seem like a big deal but try to keep yer mind(s) off it for a while, be the bigger person............or........

Send them a stiff sols letter, & send the hedge cutter one too......if you know him (cutter) let him know its just an exercise... but to stay away from your hedge/ditch and let other cutters know that there a dispute ongoing.

Thanks Good advice. As soon as I see the solicitor and understand the legal position i can decide on my options.

As for poster up the page a bit. I dont really care who actually owns the hedge it is the height of it which is the real issue. I believe it is my hedge and paid for it to be cut when i was cutting other hedges. When he trimmed it back I asked him not to cut it as I wanted it to let it up a few feet. He has cut it after two years so I need to establish what the legal position is on it.

Im not an argumentative type person and don't like arguing with people but at the self same time I dont want to walked all over by someone.

I will keep you up to date and thanks for all the replies.

1chippy

Tuck a couple of lenghts of re-bar discretly through the hedge, whoever employs the contractor will have to pay for damage to hedge trimmer.

djmc

If its your hedge you could take him to a small claims court for damage done to trees get a price from garden center for mature trees of that age and the man that cut them could be a witness if called for

yourpics

Why did the neighbour want the hedge cut in the first place? Was it a sightline or just for a good view??